Volume 5

Virtue's Household physician : a twentieth century medica a practical description in plain language of all the diseases of men, women and children with the latest discoveries in medicine and most approved methods of treatment / by a corps of eminent specialists, practising physicians and surgeons ; Herbert Buffum [and others].

Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Virtue's Household physician : a twentieth century medica a practical description in plain language of all the diseases of men, women and children with the latest discoveries in medicine and most approved methods of treatment / by a corps of eminent specialists, practising physicians and surgeons ; Herbert Buffum [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    parts of the organism exist and work for it. It controls all, and is the seat of pain and pleasure. The impressions upon the stomach, for example, resulting in a bet- ter or worse digestion, must be made through the nerves. This su- preme control of the nervous system is forcibly illustrated in the change made by joyful or sad tidings. Could we have an unbroken succession of good news, we should all have good digestion without a gymnasium. But in a world of venation and disappointment, we are driven to the necessity of muscle culture, and other hygienic expedients, to give the nervous system that support and vitality which our fitful surroundings deny. If we would make our muscle-training contributive in the highest degree to the healthful elasticity of our nerves, the exercise must be such as will bring into varied combinations and play all our muscles and nerves. Those exercises which require great accuracy, skill and dash are just those which secure this happy and complete intermar- riage of nerve and muscle. Another point I take the liberty to urge. Without accuracy in the performance of the feats, the interest must be transient. This prin- ciple is strikingly exemplified in military training. Those who have studied our infantry drill have been struck with its simplicity, and have wondered that men could go through with its details every day for years without disgust. If the drill-master permits carelessness, then authority alone can force the men through the evolutions ; but if he enforce the greatest precision, they return to their task every morning for years with cheerfulness. At this point it may be urged that those exercises which hasten the action of the thoracic viscera to any considerable degree are simply exhaustive. This is another blunder of the “ big-muscle ” men. They seem to think you can determine every man’s constitution and health by the tape-line ; and that all exercises whose results are not deter- minable by measurement are worthless. I need scarcely say there are certain conditions of brain, muscle, and of every other tissue, far more important than size; but what I desire to urge more particularly in this connection is the importance, the great physiological advantages, of just those exercises in which the lungs and heart are brought into active play. These organs are no exceptions to the law that exercise is the principal condition of development. Their vigorous training adds more to the stock of vitality than that of other organs. I have said an elastic tone of the nervous system is the physiolog- ical purpose of all physical training. If one may be allowed such an analysis, I would add that vre exercise our muscles to invigorate the thoracic and abdominal viscera. These in their turn support and in- vigorate the nervous system. All exercises which operate more di- rectly upon these internal organs, as, for example, laughing, deep breathing, and running, contribute most effectively to the stamina of